SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION

[Cal McInvale]

>1. Paul Newman made a crappy movie out of it, while Milos Forman made an
>acceptable movie out of NEST.

Crappy? Not really. It was so subdued, though, and odd that it's hard to
like it on first viewing. Speaking for myself (who else could I speak
for?), my appreciation of the movie seems to grow with repeated viewings.
(BTW, how have you seen the flick titled? SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION or NEVER
GIVE AN INCH?

>2. It is much longer than NEST.

No doubt. But so is the L. Ron Hubbard science fiction decalogy.

>3. It is much more complex than NEST--and here's the heart of its quality.  Its
>shifts of time and focus rival GR at times.  It's sexual politics--while
>still problematic--are not as nasty as in NEST.  And it seems to acknowledge
>Jean Renoir's revelation (from RULES OF THE GAME)--"Everyone has his reasons."

This I have to concede. NOTION is a complex work, maybe even a mega-book,
with shifts in tone, language, POV and time that make it damn near
hyper-textual. But IMHO, this is where Kesey gets lost and the book teeters
off toward unrecociled paths. The single vision/POV of NEST is its power:
you are inside the mind of the Chief, y'know? And from this perspective you
see exactly how hallucinogenic & illusory the absurd world is.

>The opening scene--a bird's-eye view of the river valley with a catalog of
>native flora and fauna that springs out of the Great Whitman Tradition--is
>worth the price alone, and better than anything in NEST.

You're damn tootin', Don. The first time I read that passage I thought I
had found an undiscovered god of literature, which is perhaps why I was
disappointed by the remainder of the book. Kesey's facility with language
is not under any debate: I'd be willing to euphemistically punch-out anyone
who said otherwise. The man has got a way with words. The argument is not
about the value of NOTION, but rather "Does it belong on a list of top 30
since 1950?"


Cal McInvale       e-mail:  godot at wolfe.net
WWW: http://www.wolfe.com/~godot/index.html
--------------
What is most appealing about young folks, after all, is the changes, not
the still photographs of finished character but the movie, the soul in
flux.  -- Thomas Pynchon